6/21/2013

Acknowledging that the nation’s educators face large challenges in preparing students for more rigorous academic standards and tests, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told state education officials on Tuesday that they could postpone making career decisions about teachers based on performance evaluations tied to new tests.

Russell County Middle School, part of the Russell County School District (Seale, Ala.), is one of 78 in Alabama considered failing, according to a list released Tuesday. Schools on the list could lose students and corresponding state funding if parents transfer their children to other schools and seek the state income tax credit the law allows to help them pay for such a move.

A recent study sponsored by Microsoft and Pearson and conducted by Gallup confirms the positive connection between the development of 21st-century skills—such as critical thinking, real-world problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills—and future job success. Yet more than half of those surveyed (59 percent) said they developed the skills they use at their current job outside of school.

With rapid, relentless and continuous advancement in technology, the requirements of students and teachers are also undergoing a tremendous change. The report "Education Technology and Smart Classroom Market: Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2013-2018)," defines and segments the global ed tech market.

Those are some of the findings from a new report highlighting the conditions facing most Milwaukee students — a report that is the first product of an effort aimed at drawing together major players in the city's education, business and nonprofit scenes to work across sectors and improve outcomes for all the city's children.

6/14/2013

This is already common practice—for example, in gifted classes, honors programs, and Advanced Placement courses. Some teachers group students by ability within classrooms as well, separating the strong math group or the emergent readers.

Here's a multiple-choice question: If the federal government penalizes states where pupils do badly in school, but lets the states themselves set the pass mark, will the states a) make the tests harder; or b) dumb them down?

6/13/2013

The Kansas state school board Tuesday approved new, multistate science standards for public schools that treat both evolution and climate change as key concepts to be taught from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

6/12/2013

Any educator will tell you that scoring essays on a standardized test is one of the most time-consuming parts of the process. The E-Rater (one type of robo reader) is an automated reader than can supposedly grade thousands of essays in mere seconds. The only problem with this program is that it cannot discriminate truth from fiction.

The nonprofit assessment and analytics organization – also called ACT – announced last week that it will take its flagship test online in 2015. Students shouldn't toss their bubbled answer sheets just yet, though. ACT will pilot the online delivery in select high schools before making it available for all test takers.